This Week in Neuroscience

TWiN explains the finding that activation of intracellular, not plasma membrane, serotonin 2A receptors is responsible for the plasticity-promoting and antidepressant-like properties of psychedelic compounds.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Psychedelics rewire the brain from within (Science)
• Psychedelics elicit their effects by Gi signaling (Nature)
• History of LSD (Wikipedia)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains the role of a ubiquitin ligase component in regulating the sheathing of multiple axons by Schwann cells.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Gut microbiome promotes pain in fibromyalgia (Neuron)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains a study which showed that transplanting gut microbiota from women with fibromyalgia into mice induces pain, as well as phenotypes commonly observed in patients, such as immune activation, metabolomic changes, and reduced skin innervation.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Gut microbiome promotes pain in fibromyalgia (Neuron)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explores the use of speech brain-computer interfaces to restore communication to people with paralysis, and reveals strategies for protecting private inner speech.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Keeping private inner speech from brain-computer interfaces (Cell)
• Mind-reading brain implant with password protection (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explores how theta phase shifts mediate contextual perception of facial expressions during everyday social interactions.

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Neural computations underlying contextual processing in humans (Cell Rep)
• Previous experience shapes perception (Front Human Neurosci)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reviews the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of overeating and obesity, the role of the hypothalamus and reward systems in controlling food intake and energy balance, and how dysregulation in these systems leads to overeating.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Neurobiology of overeating (Neuron)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains epidemiological data showing that exposure to air pollution was associated with an increased risk of developing Lewy body dementia, and nasal administration of air pollution in mice led to brain atrophy and impaired cognition and motor function.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Links between air pollution and dementias (Science)
• Letter from Susan Schneider Williams Widow of Robin Williams (Lewy Body Dementia UK)
• Awakenings (Wikipedia)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains how visual neurons show functional flexibility by selectively responding to subsets of inputs representing attended objects while ignoring those conveying information about irrelevant objects.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Vivianne Morrison, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Gamma-band synchronization in visual cortex (Nat Comm)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses research showing that Lactobacillus acidophilus promotes cognitive function recovery after cerebral ischemia, by regulating microglial peroxisomal function.

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Arc is pdb molecule of the month (PDB)
• Probiotics after stroke (Cell Host Microbe)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains research which identifies the regions of the brain that register a long-lasting aversion to potentially poisonous food even with meal to illness delays of several days.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• A neural mechanism for post-ingestion feedback (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reveals that proteins travel from the blood to the brain where they are taken up by microglia, revealing a new mode of communication between the brain and the periphery.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Circulatory proteins taken up by brain microglia (bioRxiv)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses experiments which show that high-fidelity memories that lose their precision with time depends on reorganization of hippocampal circuitry.

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Loss of precision memory and the hippocampus (Nature)
• Changes in hippocampi of cab drivers (PNAS)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Tim explains AI co-scientist, a tool released by Google, which it hopes to help scientists generate hypotheses and research proposals, and to accelerate the speed of scientific and biomedical discoveries.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• AI cracks superbug problem (BBC)
• Accelerating scientific breakthroughs (Google Research)
• Towards an AI co-scientist (arXiv)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains a study showing that when a mouse is confronted with an unconscious conspecific, it engages in behavior including tongue-dragging to resuscitate the animal via a tongue-brain connection.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Tim Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Tongue-dragging in mice (Sci Adv)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses a study showing that repetitive injury reactivates HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model and induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Repetitive injury, herpes, and Alzheimers (Sci Signal)
• The tau of herpesvirus (TWiV 1187)
• Fishing for viruses in senile (TWiV 519)
• Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains a study showing that while groups of neurons, form the basis for memory, astrocytes are key components of the adaptive reponse to learning experiences, and regulate the flow of information during circuit plasticity and memory recall.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Write your Senator, oppose RFK Jr nomination
• Astrocytes and memory (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains the identification of a brain circuit and periodic branch-specific neurotransmitter deployment that regulates organismal adaptation to photoperiod change.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Tim Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Brain circuit for photoperiod adaptation (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explores how pregnancy leads to modifications in brain structure and function that may prepare the mother for parenting.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Pregnancy transforms the brain (Nature)
• Hormone-mediated neural remodeling during pregnancy (Science)
• Effects of pregnancy on brain activity (Nature Comm)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Joseph Paton and Felipe Rodrigues join TWiN to explain how they used temperature manipulation to alter the speed of neuronal dynamics in the dorsal striatum of rats, a manipulation that selectively slowed down or sped up time perception, illuminating the mechanisms of time-based decisions.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Guest: Joseph J. Paton and Felipe Rodrigues

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Using temperature to analyze the neural basis of a time-based decision (Nat Neurosci)
• Hot times for the dorsal striatum (Nat Neurosci)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Mauro Costa-Mattioli returns to TWiN to discuss the results of a placebo controlled, double blind clinical trial of a probiotic which improved social behavior but not autism severity in children with ASD.

Hosts: Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Guest: Mauro Costa-Mattioli

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Probiotics for autism spectrum disorder (Cell Host Microbe)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reviews altered somatosensory reactivity, which is frequently observed among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and in mouse models the developmental timing of aberrant touch processing can predict the manifestation of ASD-associated behaviors in mouse models.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Mouse models of autism spectrum disorder (Nature Neuroscience)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reviews experiments which show that SARS-CoV-2 triggers the up-regulation of synaptic components and perturbs local electrical field potential in cerebral organoids, organotypic culture of human brain explants and post-mortem brain samples from individuals with COVID-19.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• SARS-CoV-2 perturbs synaptic homeostasis (Nature Micro)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN welcomes mice to the elite club of 'self-aware' animals, with a study demonstrating a mirror-induced self-directed behavior in mice resembling visual self-recognition.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Mice are self-aware (Neuron)
• Mirror self-recognition in mice (Neuron)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN describes a study that reveals activation of endogenous retroviruses in oligodenroglia from patients with traumatic brain injury.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Activation of endogenous retroviruses in TBI oligodendroglia (Cell Rep)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains an amazing study of a man who was paralyzed after a spinal cord injury and regained the ability to walk after implantation of a brain-spinal cord interface.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Walking naturally after spinal cord injury (Nature)
• The paralyzed rat that walked (YouTube)
• Mike the headless chicken (Wikipedia)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains research showing that interaction between glioma cells and neurons in the brain shares mechanistic features with synaptic plasticity that contributes to memory and learning in the healthy brain.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Glioma synapses recruit mechanisms of adaptive plasticity (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses research showing that sciatic nerve activation with electroacupuncture at the sciatic nerve controls systemic inflammation and rescues mice from polymicrobial peritonitis, by inducing vagal activation of aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase, leading to the production of dopamine in the adrenal medulla.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Electroacupuncture modulates the immune system (Nat Med)
• Electroacupuncture drives the vagal–adrenal axis (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reviews a mouse model of ADHD to characterize hypersensitivity to pain, and that sensitization is further amplified in a pathological inflammatory state.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Pain hypersensitivity in ADHD model (PNAS)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses a study of on the pathways that control opioid analgesic tolerance, a root cause of opioid overdose and misuse, which can develop through an associative learning.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Associative opioid analgesic tolerance (Sci Adv)
• Pavlovian-conditioned opioid tolerance (Sci Adv)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains how psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, which are being explored for treating a wide range of neuropsychiatric diseases, reopen the social reward period for critical learning.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Click arrow to play Download TWiN 042 (34 MB .mp3, 57 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Psychedelic drugs open critical period (Nature)
• Psychedelics reopen critical periods (News-Med)
• LSD microdosing doesn't work (U Chicago Med)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Vivianne explains how early in Alzheimer's disease, the brain attempts to counteract the increased excitatory drive caused by amyloid deposition, and that melanin-concentrating hormone, produced during sleep, is involved in this protective response.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Melanin-concentrating hormone and Alzheimer's disease (Nat Neurosci)
• Alzforum
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Tim takes TWiN through two studies on the role of dopamine: that syllables are natural units of spontaneous behavior used by the brain to structure action, and that mesolimbic dopamine release conveys causal associations but not reward prediction errors, thereby challenging the dominant theory of reward learning.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Spontaneous behavior without explicit reward (Nature)
• Dopamine release conveys causal associations (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Junjie from Jason's lab joins TWiN to discuss the observation that the cell gene PNMA2 encodes non-enveloped virus-like capsids that induce autoantibodies which underlie paraneoplastic syndrome.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Junjie Xu

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Virus-like capsids in paraneoplastic disease (bioRxiv)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains the finding that immunity to commensal bacteria promotes sensory neuron regeneration via the cytokine interleukin-17A.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Immunity to the microbiota promotes sensory neuron regeneration (Cell)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reviews the field of microgial research, which has advanced in recent decades but is constrained by nomenclature that is necessary but often implies specific functions.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• Microglia states and nomenclature (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN answers listener questions about Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma and the microbiota, Dravet's Syndrome, schizophrenia, brain development, and chips implanted in the human brain.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS

• Letters read on TWiN 36
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Jason and Tim review the use of an implanted chronic deep brain sensing and stimulation device to carry out biomarker-driven closed-loop therapy that resulted in a rapid and sustained improvement in depression.

Hosts: Jason Shepherd and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

• Closed-loop neuromodulation for depression (Nat Med)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains how central nervous system resident macrophages known as microglia coordinate cellular interactions during spinal cord repair in mice.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

• Microglia coordinate spinal cord repair (Nat Commun)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN describes how neurotropic viruses leave the brain via meningeal lymphatic vessels located dorsally and basally beneath the skull.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

• Meningeal lymph vessels and viral exit from brain (Nature Neuroscience)
• Clearing mouse brain video (YouTube)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reviews how, in a mouse stroke model, recovery of movement is associated with the remaining cortex and the striatum coordinating their activity together.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

• Recovery after stroke in mice (Cell Rep)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains the observation that in mice, the HIV-1 co-receptor CCR5 closes the temporal window for linking different memories.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

• CCR5 and memory linking (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN describes experiments demonstrating that gut injection of alpha-synuclein fibrils in mice converts endogenous alpha-synuclein to a pathologic form that spreads to the brain and leads to features of Parkinson's disease.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

• Gut-brain alpha-synuclein transport in PD (Neuron)
• Gut has a mind of its own (Colbert Report)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Astrocytes close the critical period (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN reveals how oligodendrocytes enhance axonal energy metabolism by transcellular delivery of a protein, SIRT2, that deacetylates mitochondrial proteins.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Click arrow to play Download TWiN 028 (77 MB .mp3, 64 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Glia 101 (TWiN 19)
• Oligodendrocytes enhance axonal energy metabolism (Neuron)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN discusses the finding that rewiring retinal projections to the auditory thalamus in ferrets leads to visually responsive cells that are typical of cells in the visual cortex.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Remapping retinal projections (Nature)
• Sweet vs bitter taste (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Memory of immunity (Cell)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN answers listener questions on sex in neuroscience studies, rotating memories in the brain, odorant receptors in the brain, and neutrophils that promote neuron survival.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Males and females in neuroscience studies (New Scientist)
• Brain rotates memories (Quanta)
• Odorant receptors in brain (one, two)
• Neutrophils promote neuron survival (Nat Imm)
• Letters read on TWiN 25
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Ioana and Robert join TWiN to discuss their work demonstrating that rodents acquire maternal behavior by social transmission from an experienced mother to a virgin female how to care for a litter via endogenous oxytocin.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Timothy Cheung

Guests: Ioana Carcea and Robert Froemke

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Oxytocin neurons and social transmission of behavior (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe

Bruce Carter joins TWiN to discuss the peripheral nervous system: the development of nerves that convey sensory information like touch from the tips of your toes to the brain, and Schwann cells, which are necessary for ensuring that those sensory signals are sustained as they travel long distances to the brain.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Guest: Bruce Carter

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Control of neuron survival by p75 (J Neurosci)
• Sympathetic nervous system (Nat Rev Neurosci)
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth and PMP22 protein (J Biol Chem)
• Satellite glial cells (Nat Rev Neurosci)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains how anti-DNA antibodies present in lupus patients bind to GluN2A-containing NMDA receptors, act as positive allosteric modulators, and impair spatial memory.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Lupus autoantibodies bind GluN2A-containing NMDA receptors (Nat Commun)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explores a study of hallucination-like perception in mice which supports the idea that hallucinations arise as faulty perceptual inferences due to elevated dopamine in the striatum.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, and Timothy Cheung

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Listener poll - please take it
• Striatal dopamine and hallucination in mice (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

While perceptual constancy requires the brain to maintain a stable representation of sensory input, TWiN explores a study showing that odor-evoked responses in the olfactory cortex drift over periods of days to weeks.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Representational drift in olfactory cortex (Nature) (open preprint)
• Ed Yong on representational drift (Atlantic)
• Letters read on TWiN 20
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

On this episode, Vivianne gives a primer on glial cells, with the goal of thinking about the central nervous system holistically and appreciating the different cell types that contribute to its function.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Mauro Costa-Mattioli joins TWiN to discuss how his laboratory dissects the contribution of host genetics and the microbiome in complex neurodevelopment disorders such as autism spectrum disorders.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Guest: Mauro Costa-Mattioli

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Mauro's work on TWiM 131 and 193
• Separating genetics and microbiome in autism (Cell)
• Please take our listener poll
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Michael Nitabach joins TWiN to discuss the finding that the nematode C. elegans, which do not have eyes, can discriminate between colors to guide foraging decisions and move them away from harmful bacteria that produce a blue-pigment toxin.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Timothy Cheung, and Vivianne Morrison

Guest: Michael Nitabach

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• C. elegans discriminates colors (Science)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Helen joins TWiN to discuss her work on understanding how the maternal microbiome modulates fetal neurodevelopment in mice.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky, Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Helen Vuong

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Maternal microbiome influences fetal neurodevelopment (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Ori, Jason, and Vincent discuss the use of antibodies to neutralize amyloid-β seeds before their deposition becomes detectable in transgenic mice, and the finding that the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease may be a late manifestation of earlier pathogenic seed formation.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Reducing Alzheimer-like pathology in mice (Nat Neurosci)
• Letters read on TWiN 13
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Ori, Jason, Erin, and Vincent dissect a study that utilizes single-cell RNA sequencing to reveal the genes that underlie remote memory storage in the medial prefrontal cortex of the mouse.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Erin Calipari, Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Transcriptional programs associated with long-term memory (Nature)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Ori, Jason, and Vincent reveal identification of an orphan receptor that modifies short-term memory in mice, and a mouse model of COVID-19 that includes anosmia or loss of smell.

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Thalamic orphan receptor in short term memory (Cell)
• Anosmia in SARS-CoV-2 infected mice (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiN 12
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Maria joins TWiN to explain how single-cell transcriptomics is being used to reveal the evolution of the brain, at a cost of about $1 per neuron.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky, and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Maria Tosches

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• Single-cell transcriptomics of reptile cortex (Science)
• Innovations in primate interneurons (Nature)
• Human versus mouse cortex (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiN 11
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains how a cytokine produced by neurons activates microglia which modify the extracellular matrix and remodel synapses, leading to memory consolidation.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky, Erin Calipari, Jason Shepherd and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• IL-33 promotes synaptic plasticity (Cell)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Columbia University Chief Neurology Resident Genna Waldman joins TWiN to explains how her department prepared for COVID-19, and the neurological symptoms associated with the disease.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky, Jason Shepherd and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Genna Waldman

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• Preparing a neurology department for COVID-19 (Neurology)
• Managing comatose COVID-19 patients (Ann Neurol)
• Neuropathology of COVID-19 (NEJM)
• Letters read on TWiN 9
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

TWiN explains how neurological disease in mice can be repaired by using CRISPR/Cas to knock down levels of a single cell protein, which converts astrocytes to neurons.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Erin Calipari, Jason Shepherd and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for this episode

• Converting glia to neurons (Cell)
• Reversing Parkinson's disease (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiN 8
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

The TWiN team reveals how the nervous system controls hair graying in mice subjected to stress, and adaptive immune responses.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Jason Shepherd, Erin Calipari and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

Links for the episode

• The hair cycle (J Cell Sci)
• Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives hair greying (Nature)
• Brain control of humoral immune responses (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiN 7
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Nirao Shah joins TWiN to discuss the work of his laboratory on how our brains generate social interactions that differ between the sexes.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky, andJason Shepherd

Guest: Nirao Shah

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Nirao Shah laboratory
• Neural circuit remodeling and sexual behavior (Cell)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Bob Datta joins TWiN to reveal the findings of his laboratory on expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the olfactory epithelium and the implications for anosmia associated with COVID-19.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky, Jason Shepherd, Erin Calipari and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Bob Datta

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in nasal olfactory epithelium (bioRxiv)
• Expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in nasal olfactory epithelium (bioRxiv)
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Jason visits the TWiN studio to explain Arc Capsid Bearing Any RNAs (ACBARs), virus-like capsids that transfer genetic information between neurons.

Hosts: Andres Bendesky, Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Arc is a repurposed retrotransposon gag protein that mediates intercellular RNA transfer (Cell)
• Drosophila gag-like ARC1 (Cell)
• Letters read on TWiN #4
• Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

Erin and the TWiN team explain how dopamine neurons encode reward probability and uncertainty, and their roles in attention-based learning and risk-taking such as gambling and addiction.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Erin Calipari,Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Click arrow to play Download TWiN 003 (52 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Dopamine neurons encode reward probability and uncertainty (Science)
• Letters read on TWiN #3

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

The TWiN team explain the basic principles of synaptic transmission, and review a classic paper demonstrating that recycling endosomes are important for modifying synaptic strength, which is involved in information storage and processing.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Andres Bendesky,Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Bendesky lab
• Recycling Endosomes Supply AMPA Receptors for LTP (Science)
• AMPA receptor (Wikipedia)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiN #2

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv

The synaptics launch the first episode of TWiN by revealing their training, research interests, and goals for the podcast.

Hosts: Ori Lieberman, Erin Calipari, Jason Shepherd, and Vincent Racaniello

Become a patron of TWiN!

• Lieberman lab
• Calipari lab
• Shepherd lab
• Image credit

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your neuroscience questions and comments to twin@microbe.tv